According to the standard fukaha, accepted fukaha, the jurists, the scholars or jurisprudence, there are variations, I mean they are at variance in some minor things, they have differences between them, some say the journey is one manzil, now manzil again is a variable factor, by manzil they mean just second one stop, so they say that if your next stop when you are taking a long journey, decides whether it is a journey which should be considered justifiable for having the number of prayers, rakat or not, so some say it is 19 miles, some say it is 14 miles, some say it is 12 miles, now it all depends on how you take the journey, for instance, if you are travelling on foot, you may stop at 12 miles and some scholars who said it is 12 miles, they thought that they would dictate the travellers to walk on foot and their journey would be taken as the indicative or representative journey.
Some journeyed on camelbacks and they even made a hop of 40 miles, so that is the 40 miles perhaps, he says 48 miles, he must have been riding a very strong camel, because I know some many scholars have mentioned 40 miles, the 48 is the first time I am hearing, and great thing is added from himself, without rhyme or reason, the fact is that the mile was a different mile, when we talk of miles, according to the terms of Islamic jurisprudence, those miles were measured in farsakh, and for 1000 farsakh, it was one mile, and a farsakh was about a yard and a half, so the rough idea of a mile, as jurisprudence scholars spoke of a mile, was about 1500 yards, definitely less than an English mile.
So according to them, it was either 12 miles, or some say 18 miles, some say 20 miles, and some do not agree with that at all, they say the holy Quran says a journey, and you should leave it at that, leave it for individual decision, if a person considers himself to be on journey, let him make that decision, why do you make it in hard and fast rule, why the holy Quran has just mentioned a principle, I know that, why do you keep referring to him repeatedly again, I have understood what he says, but I do not believe in him, I am not meant to follow him, I am just talking of the Islamic jurisprudence now, according to the principles laid down by Islam, and as understood by the earlier renowned scholars of Islam, so this is a variable factor, no decision has ever reached on this, so the best thing is to find out what has been the practice of the Messiah Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, and the Khulafa of the Messiah Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, for us that is quite enough, and they never went into a detailed discussion about the mileage, it was never mentioned, they left it open to a person.
If somebody was undertaking a journey, and it was not just a short hop or a trip or a picnic, then it was left to him, to act accordingly, we know for instance, when we used to go to Rajpura, there in Rajpura, Rajpura was from Dabir Anwar about 10.5 miles or 11 miles I suppose, so Hazrat Musleh Maud owned that area, that piece of land, so it was like a home to him, so it was his decision that he along with his family members, his children, would say the prayer in house, they would not say the prayer in house, they would say the prayer as if they were not on journey, because it was their own home, but those who accompanied him, if they were not saying their prayers behind him, then they were permitted to half of it, because even that was considered as journey, I am telling you something in addition to what you have asked, and that is a very interesting decision of Hazrat Musleh Maud, which would be of some weight to you, he decided, it was his view on this issue, that if father is accompanied by children and he goes on journey and reaches a place which is owned by him, although the distance between the two spots can be treated as a journey if it is a long distance.
But once they have reached the destination which is the property of the father, while the father is also there, the children would say the full namaz without halving it, but if the father is not there, then they would be considered to be on journey, and he made it very clear to us, once I asked this question to him, and he said the point is that according to Islamic law, in the lifetime of a father, the children do not share the property, it is only after the death of the father that the property is distributed to them, so in the lifetime they have no share, with the result that the property rights are entirely and singly enjoyed by the parent, so when they go there alone, that is not their home, but when they are in their father’s home, that is their home, in that sense, so that was his decision regarding this, so don’t bother about the details of mileage, it will lead you into nothingness, only to further confusion, you see, so why to travel from a confusion, make a journey from a confusion to a deeper confusion, that you know, you haven’t gone into this, you already know, there is a practice that we do not consider sunnahs as compulsory, while you are on a journey.
So it is already known by every Ahmadi, no, when you are permitted not to, it is like asking, can we say the prayer in full, why don’t you ask that question instead of the sunnah, what is permitted should be accepted like that, and this is the philosophy of obedience which has been taught to us in refinement by Hazrat Masih Maud, it is a very deep message, Hazrat Masih Maud A.S. said that when Allah permits you not to avail of that permission, it is not goodness, you don’t accept their decision, they may not accept your decision, what is wrong, let them not, the point is that we will stick to our jurisprudence as we understand, Hazrat Masih Maud A.S. threw light on this aspect and it is a very interesting fundamental point to be noted and to be understood, the fundamental point is this, it is in fact, it relates to the philosophy of obedience and philosophy of goodness, I should say, Hazrat Masih Maud A.S. said that nothing in itself is good or bad, it is only the obedience or submission to the will of Allah which makes something either good or if you do not submit, it makes it bad, this is the philosophy of goodness, otherwise you cannot define goodness in any way without running into difficulties, because if that be true, then if Allah permits you, then not to avail of that opportunity is not the true behaviour of obedience which Allah expects of you,
Hazrat Masih Maud A.S. made it clear that if you are kind to your children and permit them to do this and they do not, you will not like it, if you permit them out of courtesy or showing them a favour and they say no, no, no, we don’t like it or you offer somebody something and he says no, I don’t want it, you will not be pleased, so you may not punish such a child, that is different, the true pleasure would lie in another direction when the child accepts your offer with good grace and is grateful to you for that, so that is the behaviour to Allah which is taught to us by Hazrat Masih Maud A.S. So do not behave in any other manner, don’t ask questions, you cannot please Allah by force and this message which Hazrat Masih Maud A.S. has given us has been learnt by him from Huzoor A.S. himself, he made it manifestly clear to his companions that you cannot force Allah by doing goodness, however much hardship you exercise, Allah will not be pleased, this is the verdict of Huzoor A.S., Allah does not want you to be put to difficulties, Allah is pleased if you are put at ease, this is again Huzoor A.S.’s verdict.
So all this Sharia is not to add difficulties to your life, it is to put you at ease, this is the philosophy. Now if Allah decides that this is the way to put you at ease and you say no, we shall please you by going the hard way, this is in fact a way of disobedience, so don’t do that. No, I am not, when it came to light from the other person that there is a certain book written like that, I tried to make you understand this point, during the last session when you mentioned this book. This is another book, a book like it, of the same quality, I told you repeatedly, I said these are unreliable books, they quote no authority, they cannot quote an authority in tradition or the verses of the Holy Quran, so the best way to argue with your opponents is to ask for the foundation of that And they quoted this book? No, Huzoor, when I discussed with him this morning, I asked him that whenever in our books, always we quote the reference, but in this book there is no reference, so this has got no base. I argued with him, he said you take this book and I have read in other books also, so why are you pursuing that question further then? You took the right stance, so what are you asking me about then?
You should have left it at that. If somebody is guided and he does not wish to make you draw benefit from that guidance, how can you force it upon him? You should have left it at that. And also don’t waste your time on those small things. Discuss fundamentals. Huzoor, he is working with me for a long period and I also go to find a way for tabligh. No, there is no tabligh. Don’t waste your time on these things. Discuss the fundamentals with him. Once he accepts the fundamentals, then he will chuck these books away himself. The fundamental to discuss is whether Hazrat Masih Maud A.S. draws his authority from Allah or not. Whether he is Imam Mahdi or not. If he is accepted by anyone to be the rightful Imam Mahdi, then he would never look twice on such a book. These books are not guidance for us, Huzoor.
In any way, we know that. But what I am saying is guidance for you. Don’t pay attention to this. That’s the problem. I am telling you not to waste your time on these minor things when you preach a non-Ahmadi faith. Because your time is precious. So you say this is useless. There are so many schools of jurisprudence in Islam. They go on fighting their battles between each other. What? We don’t pay much value to these things. The fundamental according to us says whether the man who was to be appointed by Allah has arrived or not yet. Whether such a man has appeared or not. If that fundamental is solved, all these minor things would be meaningless.
